Why Surgeon Coding and Facility Claims Must Match — The ASC Synchronization Problem Payers Are Now Auditing

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Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are facing increasing pressure to keep professional and facility claims consistent. A surgeon may submit a professional claim for a procedure while the ASC submits a separate facility claim for the same encounter. Although these claims serve different billing purposes, the clinical details behind them should tell the same story. When surgeon coding and facility claims do not match, payers may see inconsistencies that can trigger claim reviews, payment delays, downcoding, or denials. The problem is not always an incorrect CPT code. Sometimes the issue is that two correctly prepared claims do not appear synchronized. The ASC Synchronization Problem ASC billing involves multiple parties. The surgeon or physician group submits the professional claim, while the facility submits the institutional claim for the services and resources provided by the ASC. Both claims can contain different codes because they represent different components of the same encounter....
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E/M Coding Basics for Internal Medicine

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Evaluation and management is the most important part of the practice for an internist and coding for these visits can have an important effect on the bottom line of a practice. The decision about what level to bill an evaluation and management code is rarely clear to most physicians. In order to determine what code to select for an evaluation and management procedure, it helps to first learn the elements of a code. Once you understand the elements and how they come together to create the level, it can be a lot easier to select a code with confidence. In this article, we will focus on the documentation standards for evaluation and management codes: 

 
Chief Complaint
 
Every evaluation and management visit should start with a chief complaint - some kind of reason why the patient needs to be seen. Only a simple explanation is needed, it may be “cough” “1-year recheck of diabetes” or “nausea since Tuesday.” The chief complaint is required in order to establish medical necessity, a fundamental element of the Medicare program and a required element for billing this series of codes for the private sector as well. 

If you want to read the complete blog then click below: E/M Coding Basics for Internal Medicine


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